1. Boost your outreach using multiple platforms

In social marketing, there is a thing called “owned versus rented land”. It refers to sharing and producing valuable content that you may or may not own. When you post something on Facebook, for example, that would be considered ‘rented’ because you can’t possibly know or control what the outcome of that content is going to be.

On the other hand, posting regularly on your blog would be considered ‘owned’ because you’re in full control over what happens to that content.

he current trend is to develop many platforms through which your content may reach and connect with prospective customers. Imagine something big changes in one of your platforms like a sudden drop in Facebook’s organic reach.

If you use multiple mediums, you will still possess alternative viable options at your control. Think of this as creating a safety cushion in case anything goes wrong.

However, you have to keep in mind every single platform should be nurtured properly, meaning they require time and energy in order to become reliable alternatives.

2. Customized content is more effective

Every savvy marketer wishes to deliver the right message to the right person at the right time. Imagine going to a restaurant and getting your own customized dish, but not just some dish you sort-of like, the one you absolutely adore. That is the main focus of one-on-one marketing efforts.

Knowing that we live in a world where consumer information could seem infinite, how exactly do you deliver the right message without being sneaky or intrusive? That’s the trickiest part of customized content.

Yet many studies concluded that, when done right, one-to-one marketing can definitely lower costs, boost your company’s efficiency, and deliver five to seven times the ROI for marketing spend. The best part is that the technology is up-to-date with this trend.

Tools like Facebook Ads allow you to find the right audience for your company by letting you filter through demographics and other customer characteristics in order to get deliver your content specifically to the right audience.

Right now, effective social marketing efforts have proven to be a blend between finding the right platform for your business and delivering tailored content for every single customer. Brands will soon need to start applying personalized content in order to stay relevant, otherwise, consequences might be dreadful.

3. Marketing bots are changing the way we work

The mere thought of using bots can be intimidating for a marketer, especially from a practical point of view. But the rise of marketing bots has become an inevitable effort nowadays.

What exactly is a ‘marketing bot’? Put in simple words, is a software app that completes automated duties on the Internet. Normally, the tasks performed by bots are easy and repetitive, and they do so at a much higher rate than humans can possibly achieve.

Current estimations point that in near future, bots will be able to do more difficult tasks like writing blog posts, deliver customized content, schedule social media posts, create graphics, send emails, and even answer user’s questions.

Throughout history, we have continuously evolved and gotten used to processing automation. After all, computers automated writing and Facebook automated social contact. It might be intimidating at first, and if you have any doubts, it’s probably best if you consult with your IT team.

Communication is crucial within a company, so don’t try to bypass them on this issue if you’re not that keen to technology.

For now, your business can get ahead of the game by incorporating some basic bot tasks like setting a Facebook messenger, communicating with your blog visitors or even doing research for your website, thus will give you a good sense of what they can achieve.

4. Look for untapped networks

This is probably one of the most uncommon trends right now but is definitely worth consideration. The first thing you got to do is conduct some research and find out where large amounts of potential customers are, then you just have to work backward from there.

Untapped networks exist in almost any business market. For example, your brand could benefit from talking to people on Reddit or Meetup within specific locations or demographics.

Another example of rapid business growth due to untapped networks might be Quora. When marketers realized that people using Quora were asking specific questions about specific brands and products, they rapidly began answering them. Helpful answers meant increasingly high numbers of new views. As a result of this, the site has more than a hundred million visitors each month.

5. Strive for niche-specific content

Each day, millions of articles and blogs are shared on the internet and most of them talk about the exact same topic. There is an oversaturation of the content on the web right now, so marketers are shifting towards more specific areas of their niche.

For example, instead of writing a post about ‘How to generate online traffic’, you’re better off writing about ‘How to generate organic traffic from Facebook’.

You could also try targeting only one phase of the buying cycle. If your targeted customer goes through two different phases, e.g., ‘problem and company research’ and ‘contact’, you can actually break down ‘problem research’ into different categories based on the amount of work they’ve already done or how much they already know.

Choose one stage of development and then focus a wide range of your content on serving it.

If you’re able to get to a niche-specific area of content you will also be creating customized content, so it’s fair to say you’ll be hitting two birds with one stone. Yet keep in mind you must not rely solely on this first step.

A lot of research has to be done in order for you to get to your aspired demographic. Surveys and focus groups can be a great way to dig deep into the psyche of your customers, then you’ll be able to target them properly.

6. Golden rule: Quality over quantity

If you’re a savvy marketer, you must know what makes a content relevant. For those of you who are still learning the job, there are three simple characteristics you have to meet:

Value: Your content must offer useful information that people can actually put in practice in the future.

Uniqueness: This is really pretty straightforward. If there is anything else on the market like this, it’s not unique.

Appropriateness: It’s not enough that your content has to be 100% original, it also has to be relevant to your targeted audience. For example, a recipe on how to make cat biscuits can be 100% original, but it wouldn’t be appropriate for a dog lover’s blog.

Developing engaging and interesting content is not a new trend to marketers. Quality must always be integrated into their work. But we have to look at the way we are delivering such content. What it’s actually a new trend is creating quality content for emerging platforms like Podcasts, Videos, and Social Media Ads.

Imagine you’ve created a nice, interesting piece of content like a 3,000-word post on your blog. The next step it’s to boost it as far as you can by creating fun infographics, short videos, a podcast episode, spread over different platforms, and lots more. There are countless ways to get your message and content out there, even if you’re a startup business with low investment.

But you have to keep in mind that incredible content is not that hard to find nowadays. It’s not enough to merely post something and just hope for the best. Right now, more effort is required in order to succeed.